The Virginia Tech men's basketball team spent the entire afternoon on Saturday chasing rival Virginia on the scoreboard at Cassell Coliseum in the second matchup this season of the Commonwealth Clash. Two weeks ago in Charlottesville, the Hokies survived a late-game Cavaliers rally to leave with a 75-74 win.
Two weeks later, Virginia turned the tables on the Hokies, leading for nearly the entire game against their bitter rivals and answering every punch thrown at them. Virginia Tech rallied late in the game to cut a double-digit deficit to 71-70, but a Cavaliers basket followed by misses by both teams left the Hokies with a game-tying 3-point opportunity. Ben Bunrham's shot fell short as time expired and Virginia was able to survive for a win, 73-70.
Burnham has shot the 3-point shot well this year at times but let's not deny that head coach Mike Young would like to have had the ball in Jaden Schutt's hands at the end. Unfortunately, the Duke transfer wasn't on the floor and only 18 minutes, and was on the bench for the final 13 of the game. Following the game, Young gave a reason why he wasn't available.
"Jaden Schutt had the flu," Young said at his postgame press conference. "He just doesn’t have a great look. I heard him in the bathroom before going onto the floor throwing up.”
There is nothing you can do about that. The flu season across the country has been bad this year. Young went on to say that Schutt missed practice on Wednesday, but was cleared later in the week and give him a ton of credit for gutting it out with him still feeling ill.
Schutt made a 3-pointer from the wing in the first half off an offensive rebound for his only basket of the game. Here's hoping he gets better for Tuesday's game at Boston College as the Hokies will need him against the Eagles. The Hokies offense is better when he's shooting the ball well and scoring.